[Dixielandjazz] Tommy Newsom RIP

Tue May 1 00:25:16 PDT 2007

It's not often I recognise such names.  Golly.  From my early youth days of
begging to stay up and watch Johnny, I can actually remember Mr Newsom's
name.  We're all doomed to drop like flies, it seems,
----
Etc,

Fr M J (Mike) Logsdon, Vicar-general
North American Old Roman Catholic Church (Utrecht Succession)
Archdiocese of California
www.naorc.org

"Simplicity, when it is not a careless gift of the Muse, is the last and
most painful achievement of conscientious self-denial." - James Russell
Lowell.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com
> [mailto:dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com]On Behalf Of Robert S.
> Ringwald
> Sent: Monday, April 30, 2007 11:49 PM
> To: Rev M J (Mike) Logsdon
> Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List
> Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Tommy Newsom RIP
>
>
> Just received word of Tommy's passing.  It saddens me.  He was a good and
> long-time friend and a wonderful musician.
>
> --Bob Ringwald
>
>
> Tonight Show' Band Member Tommy Newsom Dies at 78
> By Adam Bernstein
> Washington Post Staff Writer
> Monday, April 30, 2007; 2:10 PM
> Tommy Newsom, 78, a jazz saxophonist and arranger who gained national
> visibility as a key member of Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" band
> for three
> decades, and whom Carson drolly nicknamed "Mr. Excitement" for his
> stone-faced looks and somber outfits, died April 28 at his home in
> Portsmouth, Va. He had bladder and liver cancer.
> As a personality, Mr. Newsom pretended to have none. Carson gently taunted
> him for his deadpan expression and bland tastes -- his suits ran the gamut
> from brown to navy blue.
> "As a child, one time Tommy got lost and his parents couldn't describe him
> to the police," Carson once said. On another occasion, Carson said Mr.
> Newsom "wants to come back as a plant, so somebody will talk to him."
> Periodically, Mr. Newsom topped Carson's one-liners.
> When Carson asked why Mr. Newsom kept his jacket buttoned, the saxophonist
> replied that his rear end would otherwise fall off. This prompted
> executive
> producer Fred De Cordova to remind Mr. Newsom that the host was
> supposed to
> get the bigger laughs.
> Despite the gags, Mr. Newsom was a graceful musician and veteran of bands
> led by guitarist Charlie Byrd, clarinetist Benny Goodman and society
> bandleader Vincent Lopez. Mr. Newsom became an NBC studio musician, worked
> for Merv Griffin and soon after was assigned to the "Tonight" program in
> early 1962, several months before Carson took over.
> Mr. Newsom spent the next 30 years on the show, most of the time directly
> under the bandleader and trumpeter Doc Severinsen, who was known for his
> loud outfits. Mr. Newsom became assistant music director in the late 1960s
> and took over the baton in Severinsen's absence.
> "I think the first night I took over for Doc, Carson recoiled," Mr. Newsom
> told the Los Angeles Times. "He was so used to having foils on
> either side,
> Ed [McMahon] over here and Doc over there, and he needed somebody
> to bounce
> something off of, so the gags began.
> "I guess my cardboard cutout style makes a good contrast to Doc's
> flamboyant
> image," he said. "Carson has really laid some heavy ones on me.
> One night he
> said I was the only person who was going to reach puberty and senility at
> the same time."
> Thomas Penn Newsom was born Feb. 25, 1929, in Portsmouth, Va., where his
> father was a pharmacist and his mother taught kindergarten. As a child, he
> was exposed to opera and popular big band music over the radio. His mother
> played piano and sang.
> His parents bought him a saxophone at 8, and he immediately launched into
> one of Brahms's Hungarian rhapsodies, albeit with unorthodox fingering. He
> later received formal training and, as he told an interviewer,
> began playing
> in a school band -- "two girls playing a piano, several violins,
> a trumpet,
> a clarinet or two and I had a C-melody sax."
> By 13, he was playing professional engagements in the Norfolk area at
> everything from school dances and to returning World War II servicemen.
> "My parents kept a very loose rein on me," he later told a
> Norfolk reporter.
> "They were grand, but they were very lenient. They had faith in me."
> By 1952, he had graduated from the Norfolk division of the College of
> William & Mary and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore -- taking music jobs
> in strip clubs to supplement his income. He spent four years in the Airmen
> of Note, the Air Force's big band, and received a master's degree in music
> education from Columbia University.
> Meanwhile, he began an active freelance career based in New York. He
> recorded with fellow Tidewater jazzmen such as Charlie Byrd and
> clarinetist
> and vibraphonist Tommy Gwaltney. His most prestigious early job
> came in 1961
> and 1962, when he toured the Soviet Union and South America with Benny
> Goodman's big band.
> While with Goodman, he wrote a well-received composition, "Titter Pipes,"
> that became a showcase number for two other saxophonists on the
> Soviet tour,
> Phil Woods and Zoot Sims.
> Mr. Newsom continued to cultivate his reputation as a solid
> composer-arranger. Over his long career, he arranged for Byrd (including
> 1964's "Brazilian Byrd" album), jazz trumpeter Buck Clayton (for whom he
> wrote "Kansas City Ballad") and the all-female jazz orchestra
> Diva. He also
> arranged for opera singer Beverly Sills, country singer Kenny
> Rogers and the
> Cincinnati Pops orchestra.
> Mr. Newsom also did musical arranging for such TV broadcasts as "Night of
> 100 Stars II" (1985) and the "40th Annual Tony Awards" (1986),
> and he shared
> Emmy Awards for both productions.
> Long settled in Los Angeles, California's Northridge Earthquake in 1994
> persuaded him to relocate to Portsmouth. He recorded several CDs,
> including
> three for the Arbors label, and played at music festivals nationwide.
> With the self-deprecation that made him a household name, he once told a
> festival audience, "And now we're going to render George Gershwin for a
> while. Probably into a bar of soap."
> Survivors include his wife of 49 years, Pat Hernansky Newsom of
> Portsmouth;
> a daughter, Candace Liebmann of Teaneck, N.J. A son, Mark Newsom, died in
> 2003.
>  <
> http://www.thenakedpiano.com
> >
>
>
>
>
> --Bob Ringwald K6YBV
> 916/806-9551
> www.ringwald.com
> --
> Leader, The Fulton Street Jazz Band
> www.fultonstreetjazz.com
> --
> The Boondockers (jazz and Comedy)
> www.theboondockers.com
>
> "Good breeding consists of concealing how much we think of ourselves
> and how little we think of the other person." --Mark Twain
>  --
>
>
>
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